Sam Cohen
Biography Sam Cohen
Sam Cohen
2015 is the year that guitarist, songwriter, producer, and animator SAM COHEN sets out on his sweeping
solo project. Formerly a core member of Apollo Sunshine and the man behind Yellowbirds, Cohen spent the
last decade touring and making records, mostly in Brooklyn, treading the tenuous boundaries between the
roughhewn, the psychedelic, and the just plain timelessly cool.
Along the way he’s lent his guitar playing to the likes of Bob Weir, Norah Jones, CeeLo, and labelmate
EDJ. Cohen also directs a beloved annual recreation of The Last Waltz that has featured Nels Cline, Cass McCombs, and former bandmate Twin Shadow, amongst dozens of others.
Cool It, Cohen’s solo debut, is an extension of the kaleidoscopic terrain evident on previous projects, but
where those records rested blissfully in the sonic ether, Cool It reaches outward with more directness than
ever, dropping a spotlight on Cohen’s arresting and unconventional songwriting. The melodic ebb and flow
might call Harry Nilsson to mind, while guitars and synths flicker under song forms, occasionally overtaking
them in fits of molten stoner rock.Dynamic vocal deliveries turn sharp corners, ranging from gruff to tender,
sometimes within a single stanza.
Cohen plays and recorded everything on the album himself (save a few guest appearances from his former
Yellowbirds compatriots), largely in a weeklong flurry in upstate New York. One creative gesture, captured
with a lifetime’s worth of accumulated gear. Interestingly, all of the record’s lead synth hooks are performed
on heavily processed guitars, a technique that saturates every mix with the feel of Cohen’s expansive and
particular guitar virtuosity.
Pitchfork has called his work “willfully chaotic” and “highly refined” in the same review, while Paste has
dubbed it “bedroom pop” and “a sonic tapestry.” Plaudits aside, he is an artist without consensus, evasive as
ever, and finally all of the monikers, collusions, and alteregos are stripped away.
